By Adewale Sanyaolu
Contrary to claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that it was importing Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK), popularly called kerosene, to augment local production, statistics obtained from its website, yesterday, indicated it had stopped importation of the product.
NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, had, in a telephone interview with Daily Sun, on Monday, said the corporation was still fulfilling its obligation by importing the product and equally supplementing it with what the refineries produce locally.
But, data from NNPC’s November financial and operations report, released yesterday, revealed that the corporation, through its Offshore Processing Agreement (OPA) and Direct Sale and Direct Purchase (DSDP) agreements, last imported DPK in September 2016, with a total volume of 33,662,899.42 litres.
There were no imports for October and November, 2016.
Prior to September imports, the corporation last imported in May 2016, with a total volume of 81,475,081.07.
Cumulatively, NNPC imported 530,236,644.78 litres from December 2015 to November 2016, with no imports in June, July, August, October and November, 2016.
On the other hand, the volume of kerosene for the three refineries in Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt have continued to nosedive with only 42,313,316 litres recorded for November, as against 84,153,826 litres produced in October, 2016.
A low point for DPK production for the three refineries was in December 2015, when it produced 14,435,344 litres, picking up to 28,747,488 in January, 2016.
On a cumulative aggregate, production for the 12-month period, spanning December 2015 to November 2016, the three refineries produced only 591,404,039 litres.
Kerosene is now scarce in major cities across the country, forcing the price of a four-litre gallon to rise to N1, 500 from N1,000.
The development has thrown many households into a major cooking crisis as the two sources of energy for domestic cooking (kerosene and gas) have become scarce.
Most households across the country have been forced to resort to firewood, charcoal and other sources of dirty energy for their cooking needs.
Daily Sun survey across some retail outlets and cooking gas plants in Lagos indicated that most of them were out of stock of the two essential commodities.
